Honeymoon in Japan (to JR Pass or not to JR Pass)??? Urgent!

11.
Posted byGenkiLee(Full Member 5 posts) 5y
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Hello, Qokoon!

Congratulations on your engagement! And how awesome you picked Japan for your honeymoon! November is usually chilly but a lovely season to visit. Plus the beauty of the autumn leaves will completely enchant you! (It enchanted me so much, I'm still here! Ha!).

I understand there's some conflicting information going on in this thread. Maybe this will help:

1: Non-Japanese (like us) CAN and DO travel the entire nation without a JR Rail Pass. I've never used one in my life. Like bex76 said, it's a better deal when used for long-distance train travel. But as many have said, your itinerary doesn't require it.

2: The Nozomi Super Express Shinkansen (Bullet Train) is currently the fastest in the JR fleet. I think SA-Tokyo was trying to say that the JR Rail Pass is available only to foreigners as a special promotion deal by JR to boost international tourism. JR Rail Passes aren't available for purchase within Japan.

Happy planning! Sounds like a fantastic trip! Holler if you need destination ideas!

GenkiLee

12.
Posted byJTBTravel(First Time Poster 1 posts) 4y
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Full disclosure: I work for a company that sells JR Passes (JTB)

I know this is an old thread but it shows up in search engine results and other people may come across it while doing their research so I felt this contribution would be valuable.

To answer the question of the OP (and we get the same type of question A LOT) I'd say that in your case it probably makes the most sense to just go with individual tickets. For the benefit of others reading this post with a similar question I'd say that the rule of thumb is that a 7 day JR Pass will cost about the same as Tokyo to Kyoto return. So we recommend buying it in those situations as the marginal price difference is worth it for the extra options it gives you. If you want the freedom to travel anywhere on a whim then the JR Pass is for you but if you're 100% locked-in going Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka then individual tickets (or bus) will help you save some money.

What is the full name of JR? I think these information will useful to people who really did not know these things before.

JR = Japan Rail. Japan Rail is a collection of 6 different rail companies (JR Kyushu, JR East, JR West, JR Hokkaido, JR Central, JR Shikoku). The official site for information on the Japan Rail Pass is: www.japanrailpass.net. It's not the most user friendly place in the world but it is the official place for JR information.

Quoting GenkiLee

1: Non-Japanese (like us) CAN and DO travel the entire nation without a JR Rail Pass. I've never used one in my life. Like bex76 said, it's a better deal when used for long-distance train travel. But as many have said, your itinerary doesn't require it.

2: The Nozomi Super Express Shinkansen (Bullet Train) is currently the fastest in the JR fleet. I think SA-Tokyo was trying to say that the JR Rail Pass is available only to foreigners as a special promotion deal by JR to boost international tourism. JR Rail Passes aren't available for purchase within Japan.

That's correct. Although by "special promotion" don't take this to mean limited time. You can't buy it in Japan but someone with Japanese citizenship can buy it if they're a resident of another country or in a de facto or marriage relationship with someone who is a foreign resident but whatever the case we (and other travel agencies) can't post to Japanese addresses. That's JR's rule, not ours, and we honour it.

Quoting onetravelgirl

I would say you should look at a travel site called Japanican- they have reasonable tours from Tokyo to Kyoto for overseas visitors, including the Shinkansen (bullet train) trip. It is your best bet.

Is a part of the company I work for (JTB) with the key difference that they're an Online Travel Agency (OTA) whereas we're both online and local. What that means is that you can pickup from out offices or have it delivered via post. If you're fine with post then you're local agent will probably have cheaper postage. If you are in a rush or don't want to risk a delay in receiving your voucher because the post office might lose it then you have more protection with a local provider.

I'm not going to link to the site I work for but whoever you book with just make sure you can get your pass in your hands before you leave the country.